Giants News

The best games by 1 batter for every club

May 21, 2020

Do you know your favorite team's best individual single-game hitting performance? From Hall of Famers to players who otherwise had obscure careers, there's a diverse list in that category. With the help of all 30 MLB.com beat writers, here's the best game any one batter has had for each club.

Do you know your favorite team's best individual single-game hitting performance? From Hall of Famers to players who otherwise had obscure careers, there's a diverse list in that category. With the help of all 30 MLB.com beat writers, here's the best game any one batter has had for each club.

AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST

BLUE JAYS: Carlos Delgado -- Sept. 25, 2003 vs. Devil RaysDelgado was chasing 40 home runs down the stretch in 2003, and entered this late September game against the Devil Rays sitting at 37. A few hours later, Delgado sat at 41, having just launched four home runs in a single game for the first time in Blue Jays history. At the time, only 14 other players in Major League history had accomplished the feat, and Delgado did it with style. After bouncing a homer off the windows of the SkyDome’s restaurant in center field earlier in the game, Delgado launched a skyscraper for his fourth of the night, smacking off those same windows and sending the home fans into a frenzy. José Bautista’s bat flip gets all the love in Toronto, but Delgado’s casual, overhand toss after No. 4 was a thing of beauty. -- Keegan Matheson

ORIOLES: Manny Machado -- Aug. 18, 2017 vs. AngelsMachado is far from the only Oriole to achieve a three-homer game (11 others have done it), and the seven runs he drove in on this night are not the club’s single-game record (Eddie Murray and Jim Gentile co-own that mark, with nine). But Machado gets the nod here because of the impact each swing had on the game result. By launching a two-run homer off Andrew Heaney in the third inning, and a solo shot off Heaney in the fifth, Machado cut into a deficit the O’s would claw back from all night. His final swing erased it for good -- his walk-off grand slam off Kenynan Middleton lifted Baltimore to dramatic come-from-behind, 9-7 win at Camden Yards. In the process, Machado became just one of three players in MLB history to punctuate a three-homer game with a walk-off grand slam. He is the only Oriole to do it. -- Joe Trezza

RAYS: Travis d'Arnaud -- July 15, 2019 at Yankees

There’s likely some recency bias with this pick, but d’Arnaud’s three-homer game against the Yankees in 2019 was nothing short of remarkable -- and historic. The Rays have had five players hit three homers in a game, but the fact that d’Arnaud’s third homer was a dramatic three-run shot in the top of the ninth off Aroldis Chapman gives him the edge.

d’Arnaud led off the game with a homer, giving the Rays some much-needed confidence against a Yankees team that had their number all season long. Two innings later, d’Arnaud hit his second homer of the day, launching it almost to the same spot as the first blast. After drawing two walks in his next two at-bats, the stage was set for d'Arnaud to be the hero against Chapman, and the catcher delivered with a go-ahead three-run homer. It capped a 3-for-3 night with two walks and three homers. d’Arnaud also became the first catcher to hit three homers out of the leadoff spot and the first catcher to hit three home runs against the Yankees in a single game. -- Juan Toribio

RED SOX: Fred Lynn -- June 18, 1975 at TigersThis was the signature night of Lynn’s unforgettable rookie season. Playing at Tiger Stadium, Lynn simply went off, going 5-for-6 with three homers, a triple and 10 RBIs. The 16 total bases Lynn accumulated that night set a Red Sox record that still hasn’t been broken. Dustin Pedroia and John Valentin came the closest, with 15. The 10 RBIs tied him with three other players for a team record. There was never any doubt who would win this game, thanks to Lynn, who powered the Red Sox to a 15-1 victory.

He didn’t exactly ease into it, belting a two-run homer to bring home Carl Yastrzemski in the top of the first. In the second inning, Lynn smashed a three-run homer after Rick Burleson and Yaz set the table for him. In the third, Lynn smashed a two-run triple, giving him seven RBIs in the first three innings. After lining out in the sixth, Lynn had his only inconsequential hit of the night in the eighth, a single. In the ninth, he capped the epic performance with a three-run shot to right. Lynn went on to win the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP Awards, becoming the first player in history to win both trophies in the same season. -- Ian Browne

YANKEES: Reggie Jackson -- October 18, 1977 (World Series Game 6) vs. DodgersLou Gehrig claimed the only four-homer game in Yankees history, achieved on June 3, 1932, at Philadelphia's Shibe Park, a diamond where Tony Lazzeri slugged two grand slams and collected 11 RBIs a few years later on May 23, 1936. Yet when factoring in the stage and importance of the contest, "Mr. October" takes the prize for his epic performance in the clinching Game 6 of the 1977 World Series.

With the Yankees' 21st championship hanging in the balance, Jackson capped an eventful first season in pinstripes by belting three home runs off three different Dodgers hurlers, all on the first pitch. Jackson hit a fourth-inning homer off Burt Hooton, a fifth-inning shot off Elias Sosa and connected for an eighth-inning blast off Charlie Hough -- a shot that landed in Yankee Stadium's distant center-field batters' eye. -- Bryan Hoch

AL CENTRAL

INDIANS: Lonnie Chisenhall -- June 9, 2014 at Rangers

Welcome to the battle of Rocky Colavito and Lonnie Chisenhall.

On June 10, 1959, Colavito’s name was added to a very short list of players who have hit four home runs in a single game. It had gone down as the best game by a Cleveland batter without a doubt, finishing with five runs scored and six RBIs … that is, until Chisenhall gave him some competition almost 55 years later to the day. On June 9, 2014, Chisenhall recorded five hits with three homers and nine RBIs, a performance that gives him the slightest of all edges in this race.

This isn’t to take away from Colavito, who is just one of 18 Major Leaguers to ever hit four homers in a game. But Chisenhall’s nine RBIs matched a club record set by Chris James in 1991, and he became the first big leaguer in at least 100 years to collect at least three homers, five hits and nine RBIs without recording an out. He was just the fourth hitter to have at least that many home runs, hits and RBIs in a single game. Both Scooter Gennett and Anthony Rendon have since joined that list.

Chisenhall was also just the 32nd Indians batter to launch at least three long balls in a single game, and it marked the 15th time in at least the previous 100 years that a Major League player had at least three homers and nine RBIs in a single game. -- Mandy Bell

ROYALS: Kevin Seitzer -- Aug. 2, 1987 vs. Red SoxThe Royals have had numerous three-homer games from stars such as George Brett to Bo Jackson to Lorenzo Cain. Kendrys Morales has the club record with a 15-total-bases game. Mike Moustakas owns the club mark with a 9-RBI game at Camden Yards. But of the three six-hit games in club history, none will top Seitzer’s game against the Red Sox, a 13-5 Royals win. Seitzer, who was an All-Star that season and finished second in Rookie of the Year balloting to Mark McGwire, was unstoppable on that day. Seitzer had two home runs and a double -- 13 total bases altogether. He also scored four runs and drove in seven. A remarkable day at then-Royals Stadium. -- Jeffrey Flanagan

TIGERS: Ty Cobb -- May 5, 1925 at St. Louis BrownsCobb was a 38-year-old player-manager with one double-digit homer season in his 20-year career, most of it in the Deadball Era, when he stepped to the plate against the St. Louis Browns. His 6-for-6, three-homer game that Tuesday afternoon produced 16 total bases, an AL record then and still a Tigers record now. Cobb homered in the first inning off Bullet Joe Bush, homered again in the second inning off Elan Vangilder, doubled in the fourth inning off Joe Giard, hit a sixth-inning infield single off Milt Gaston, homered off Gaston in the eighth, and hit another infield single for an RBI in the ninth off Brad Springer. He then made his only out of the game when he tried to steal third base. Cobb scored four times and drove in five runs in Detroit's 14-8 win.

No Tiger approached Cobb's total base mark until Dmitri Young homered twice and tripled twice in a five-hit performance at Baltimore on May 6, 2003. Young finished a double shy of the cycle, a hit he actually passed up to get the second triple in the ninth inning. -- Jason Beck

TWINS: Kirby Puckett -- Aug. 30, 1987 at BrewersNormally, the act of going 6-for-6 -- as Puckett did on that Sunday afternoon at Milwaukee County Stadium -- would be impressive enough, but the Hall of Fame center fielder’s feat is best appreciated in context. In the previous night’s game, Puckett had gone 4-for-5, meaning that he tallied 10 hits in 11 at-bats (including four homers) in the span of less than 24 hours. What’s more, he accomplished all of this on the road, where the 1987 Twins were notoriously awful. (Despite winning the World Series that season, the team went an unfathomable 29-52 away from the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.)

Even in the absence of all that context, though, Puckett’s six-hit performance was plenty memorable. It remains the only six-hit game in team history, and his 14 total bases from the performance also remain a club record. Puckett started his afternoon with a first-inning RBI single off Brewers lefty Juan Nieves and added a solo homer in the third. He then singled to lead off the fifth and doubled to begin the sixth, sealing his second straight four-hit game -- but he wasn’t done. The eighth inning saw a glancing double off the right-field wall as the Twins mounted a go-ahead rally, and he got one more crack at things in the ninth, when he crushed a ball over the right-field fence for his sixth hit -- and second homer -- of the game. -- Do-Hyoung Park

WHITE SOX: Pat Seerey -- July 18, 1948 (Game 1) at Philadelphia A'sThe right-handed-hitting Seerey finished with 86 career home runs over 2,095 plate appearances and knocked out 18 in 99 games with the White Sox to close out his career. But four of those Seerey homers came in one game against the Philadelphia Athletics, with Seerey needing 11 innings to become the second AL player at the time to accomplish such a feat (Lou Gehrig was first on June 3, 1932). Eighteen players and six American Leaguers have hit four homers in a game all-time.

Seerey homered once off Bob Savage and twice off Carl Scheib, but punctuated the effort for a bad White Sox team with a two-out, game-winning blast in the top of the 11th off Lou Brissie to provide a 12-11 victory. Seerey drove in seven overall and then went 0-for-2 with a run scored in the nightcap loss. The White Sox record for RBIs in a game sits at eight, shared by four players including Robin Ventura, who had two grand slams in the same game at Texas on Sept. 4, 1995, and Jim Spencer, who drove in eight during two separate games in 1977. -- Scott Merkin

AL WEST

ANGELS: Garret Anderson -- Aug. 21, 2007 vs. YankeesAnderson became just the 13th player in Major League history to record 10 RBIs in a game when he accomplished the feat in an 18-9 win over the Yankees at Angel Stadium. He went 4-for-6 with two homers -- a grand slam and a three-run blast -- and two doubles. Most impressively, Hall of Famer Mike Mussina started the game for the Yankees and Anderson ripped a two-run double off him to start things off in the first inning. He helped chase Mussina from the game in the second, when he smacked an RBI double to score Vladimir Guerrero as part of a five-run rally. Anderson's three-run shot came in the third off Edwar Ramirez and he capped his incredible game with a grand slam off lefty Sean Henn in the sixth. He had a chance to add more in the eighth with runners at the corners and two outs, but he grounded out to shortstop. -- Rhett Bollinger

ASTROS: Jeff Bagwell -- June 24, 1994 vs. DodgersIn the midst of his MVP season, Bagwell went 4-for-5 with a club-record-tying three homers off three different pitchers in a 16-4 win over the Dodgers in the Astrodome. He’s one of only four players in Astros history to have 13 total bases in one game, along with Morgan Ensberg (May 15, 2005), Lee May (June 21, 1973) and Joe Morgan (July 8 1965).

The three homers came in a span of three innings, including a pair of homers in a nine-run sixth in which Bagwell became the 28th player to homer twice in one inning. Bagwell hit a towering one-out, solo homer to left field off Ramon Martinez in the sixth, and later in that frame homered off Rudy Seanez, a three-shot into the Astros’ bullpen in right. Bagwell’s third homer came off lefty Brian Barnes in the eighth.

“It’s my biggest night ever,” Bagwell said after the game. “I mean, I hit three home runs in college, but what’s that, against the University of Richmond? This is the big leagues.”

Bagwell hit .368 with 39 homers and 116 RBIs in only 110 games that season, breaking his hand just before baseball went on strike. -- Brian McTaggart

ATHLETICS: Khris Davis -- May 17, 2016 vs. Rangers

There have been plenty of three-homer performances in A’s history -- 28 to be exact -- but the manner in which Davis accomplished his three-homer game put him in extremely rare company. Playing a night game at the Oakland Coliseum in an 8-5 victory against the Rangers, Davis’ third long ball came off Shawn Tolleson in the ninth for a walk-off grand slam. The rarity was that Davis became just the second player in Major League history to hit three homers in a game with the third being a walk-off grand slam. Joey Votto accomplished the feat in 2012.

Earlier in that game, Davis took Cole Hamels deep for solo shots in the second and sixth innings to finish with a career-high six RBIs. The celebration after the walk-off was almost as good as the homer that sailed deep into the left-field bleachers, with Davis stopping about 10 feet before home plate to toss his helmet into the group of teammates awaiting him as if it were a basketball shot.

"I've had that in the back of my head since last year, and I finally got the chance to do it. It was a swish, by the way,” Davis said of the celebration. “It was an amazing feeling. I knew in the back of my head I was going to get the job done going up to the plate. I surprised myself."

This was just a small part of an impressive first season with the A’s that saw Davis blast 42 home runs with 102 RBIs. -- Martin Gallegos

MARINERS: Mike Cameron -- May 2, 2002 at White Sox

Cameron not only became the first Mariner to club four home runs in the same game, he pulled it off in the first five innings of a 15-4 victory over the White Sox at Comiskey Park. The 29-year-old center fielder’s homers were all solo shots, but only because he went back-to-back twice in the first inning with teammate Bret Boone, who first cleared the bases with two-run blasts of his own. The two are still the only MLB players to go back-to-back twice in the same inning of a game.

But Cameron didn’t stop there. After his two center-field blasts in the first, he added a homer to left field in the third inning and another to center in the fifth. His other three blasts came off Jim Parque, who had replaced starter Jon Rauch midway through the first. Cameron -- acquired two years earlier from the Reds in the Ken Griffey Jr. trade -- had two more chances to become the first MLB player to go deep five times in a game, but was hit by a pitch in the seventh inning and then flied out to the warning track in right in his final at-bat in the ninth. -- Greg Johns

RANGERS: Josh Hamilton -- May 8, 2012 at OriolesHamilton had five great seasons for the Rangers but was at his best on May 8, 2012, when he tied a Major League record with four home runs in a 10-3 victory over the Orioles at Camden Yards. At the time, Hamilton became the 16th player in MLB history to hit four home runs in one game. It has been done twice since. He also had a double to give him a 5-for-5 night. He became the seventh player with at least five extra-base hits in a game and the 18 total bases were the most ever in an AL game. He fell one short of the MLB record held by Shawn Green (see below) of the Dodgers. All four home runs came with Elvis Andrus on base, giving him eight RBIs on the night, and infielder Michael Young said afterwards, “The best individual performance I have ever seen.” -- T.R. Sullivan

NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST

BRAVES: Joe Adcock -- July 31, 1954 at Brooklyn DodgersContrary to what some might think, Bob Horner’s four-homer game against the Expos on July 6, 1986, was not the most impressive offensive performance in Braves history. The franchise’s best day at the plate was constructed by Adcock, who homered four times and added a double in a 15-7 win over Brooklyn. Adcock and Horner are the only Braves to ever homer four times in a game -- a feat done a total of 18 times in MLB history. But Adcock joins Shawn Green and Josh Hamilton as the only players to ever add an additional extra-base hit within a four-homer performance . Adcock doubled in the third inning of this game and exited having gone 5-for-5 with a MLB record 18 total bases in a game. The record stood until Green went 6-for-6 with a double and a single during the four-homer game he produced for the Dodgers in Milwaukee on May 23, 2002. -- Mark Bowman

MARLINS: Cody Ross -- Sept. 11, 2006 vs. MetsRoss had a sneaky way of surprising teams, mainly because the right-handed-hitting, left-handed-throwing outfielder had deceptive power. Mainly a fourth outfielder, Ross regularly did damage when in the lineup. On Sept. 11, 2006, Ross made Marlins history, becoming the second player in franchise history to hit three home runs in a game. In the Marlins’ 16-5 win over the Mets, Ross also drove in seven runs, which also matches a club record. Both standards are held today. Ross went 4-for-5 in the blowout win and scored three runs.

Giants fans also are well aware of Ross’ flair for the dramatic. In the 2010 NL Championship Series, Ross had a two-homer game against Hall of Famer Roy “Doc” Halladay and the Phillies. He had three home runs in the series and was named NLCS MVP. On that September night in '06 against the Mets in Miami, Ross had a three-run homer in the first inning off Dave Williams. In the third inning, he dribbled an infield single, and after making his lone out of the night, Ross launched a pair of two-run homers. In the sixth inning, he connected against Heath Bell, and in the seventh inning he added another two-run shot off Royce Ring. In Marlins history, just four players have had as many as seven RBIs in a game. Joining Ross are Greg Colbrunn (1995), Adeiny Hechavarria (2013) and Gary Sheffield (1995). -- Joe Frisaro

METS: Edgardo Alfonzo -- Aug. 30, 1999 at AstrosOnly 13 Mets players have hit three home runs in a game. Only two have collected six hits. Only one accomplished both feats on the same day. In a Monday night game at the Astrodome, Alfonzo went 6-for-6 with three homers, driving home five runs and scoring six times in the Mets’ 17-1 rout of the Astros.

The game was minutes old when Alfonzo hit a solo homer off Shane Reynolds. He followed with a single in the second inning as part of a six-run Mets rally, then a two-run homer in the fourth, then another solo shot to lead off the sixth. All three of Alfonzo’s homers came off different pitchers, and he wasn’t done. With the game well in hand, Alfonzo singled to lead off the eighth inning, before the Mets rallied to get him an extra at-bat in the ninth. He singled yet again to set a Mets record with 16 total bases in a game. The kicker? Heading into the road trip, Alfonzo had been in a 3-for-30 slump. -- Anthony DiComo

NATIONALS: Anthony Rendon -- April 30, 2017 vs. Mets

Rendon arrived at Nationals Park without a homer on the season. He left the stadium with a new Major League record following a historic 23-5 Nats win. On that day, Rendon became the first big league player to go 6-for-6, belt three home runs and record 10 RBIs.

Rendon set the tone for his afternoon with a two-run single in the first inning off Noah Syndergaard. In the third, his 421-foot home run off Sean Gilmartin was a preview of the 415-foot shot that was to follow in the following frame. He nearly smacked a grand slam in the fifth with a 388-foot double against Fernando Salas that bounced off the right-center field wall.

Rendon kept the momentum going in the seventh with a single, setting the stage for his third home run of the day -- a 389-foot shot off Kevin Plawecki in the eighth. He holds the Nats record for most hits in a nine-inning game and is tied with Mark Reynolds for most RBIs in a game. -- Jessica Camerato

PHILLIES: Mike Schmidt -- April 17, 1976 at CubsSchmidt hit a franchise-record four home runs in a legendary 18-16 victory over the Cubs in 10 innings at Wrigley Field. There are plenty of crazy things about this game, but how about the fact that Schmidt led the big leagues in home runs in both 1974 and 1975 and somehow only hit sixth in the Phillies' lineup? This is back in the day when speedy, bat-control guys hit in the top two spots (i.e. Dave Cash and Larry Bowa). Jay Johnstone hit third. Schmidt flied out in his first plate appearance in the second inning and singled in the fourth when the Cubs held a 12-1 lead. But Schmidt hit homers in his next four plate appearances -- he hit a two-run homer in the fifth, a solo homer in the seventh, a three-run homer in the eighth and a two-run homer in the 10th.

Hall of Fame outfielder Chuck Klein (July 10, 1936) is the only other Phillies player to hit four homers in a game. Willie “Puddin’ Head” Jones (Aug. 20, 1958) and Jayson Werth (May 16, 2008) are the only other Phillies to have eight RBIs in a game. -- Todd Zolecki

NL CENTRAL

BREWERS: Robin Yount -- Oct. 3, 1982 at OriolesAs usual, Christian Yelich has a case here, either with his six-hit cycle in an epic, extra-inning win at the Reds on Aug. 29, 2018, or another cycle against the Reds at Miller Park less than three weeks later -- making him the first player ever to achieve that statistical oddity twice in the same season against the same team. The following April, Yelich matched single-game franchise records for home runs (three) and RBIs (seven) in a win over the Cardinals, a performance that ranks high in Brewers history by a metric called base-out runs added.

But if context counts, the greatest offensive performance in Brewers history belongs to their greatest player ever, Yount, who powered Milwaukee to its first-ever division crown in the 1982 regular-season finale. The Brewers had been four games up on the Orioles in the AL East with five games to play, only to drop four games in a row, including the first three of a four-game, season-ending series in Baltimore. The division came down to the final day, a pitching matchup of future Hall of Famers Don Sutton and Jim Palmer, and Yount set the tone while quieting the raucous crowd with home runs off Palmer in each of his two at-bats.

“That just took the pressure off of everybody,” said Jim Gantner of Yount’s first-inning solo shot. “Then he hit another.”

Yount finished the day 3-for-4 with four runs scored, a triple, two homers and a hit-by-pitch in a 10-2 Brewers victory. Don’t let the final score fool you; the game wasn’t in hand until the Brewers exploded for five runs in the ninth. -- Adam McCalvy

CARDINALS: Matt Carpenter -- July 20, 2018 at Cubs

The Cardinals have had some great offensive performances in their history. Mark Whiten, a journeyman outfielder, hit four home runs and had 12 RBIs in a game in 1993, and Jim Bottomley went 6-for-6 with 12 RBIs in 1924. Stan Musial hit five home runs in a doubleheader in 1954, and Albert Pujols had five three-home run games in his time with the Cardinals. But on this day at Wrigley Field, Carpenter stuffed the box score like no Cardinals hitter had before. On the third baseman’s 5-for-5 day, he hit three home runs and two doubles for 16 total bases and seven RBIs.

The only other player in 120 years with three homers and two doubles in a game was the Cubs’ Kris Bryant, who you can read about below. It took Bryant eight innings to do what Carpenter had done by the middle of the sixth. Carpenter started the afternoon game by making history with the 21st leadoff homer of his career, tying Lou Brock’s club record. An inning later, Carpenter homered again off Cubs lefty Jon Lester. In the fourth inning, he doubled twice off two different pitchers. And in the sixth, Carpenter lifted a three-run homer to punctuate his historic day. -- Anne Rogers

CUBS: Kris Bryant -- June 27, 2016 at Reds

Before getting into Bryant’s performance, let’s note that arguably the most famous individual performance has become known as "The Ryne Sandberg Game." On June 23, 1984, the Hall of Fame second baseman had five hits, seven RBIs and a pair of late, game-tying homers off Hall of Fame reliever Bruce Sutter. That set up a 12-11 walk-off victory over the rival Cardinals -- a win that will forever be a part of Cubs lore.

For this, however, the nod goes to Bryant for the incredible one-man wrecking crew performance he posted against the Reds during an NL MVP campaign that ended with a World Series parade. In an 11-8 win on the road in Cincinnati, Bryant churned out five hits, including two doubles and three homers, scored four runs and collected six RBIs along the way. Two of his hits gave Chicago the lead and two others helped spread the game open. It is the only time in Cubs history a player has amassed at least 16 total bases in a game. There have only been 23 such games in recorded MLB history, tracing back to 1904, with greats like Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Willie Mays and Mike Schmidt on that list.

Bryant’s showing is also just one of two instances since 1904 in which an MLB player had two doubles and three home runs in the same game (St. Louis’ Matt Carpenter also achieved the feat on July 20, 2018, vs. the Cubs). -- Jordan Bastian

PIRATES: Rennie Stennett -- Sept. 16, 1975 at CubsThis may not have been the most dominating or overpowering offensive performance in Pirates history. Those titles likely belong to Willie Stargell, who went 5-for-5 with three homers, a double and seven RBIs against the Cubs on May 22, 1968. In that game, Stargell became the only Pirate ever -- and one of 44 Major Leaguers since 1904 -- to record 15 total bases in one game. Stargell, Roberto Clemente, Ralph Kiner and Andrew McCutchen were all responsible for multiple three-homer games with the Bucs, so there are plenty of candidates for this honor.

But Stennett accomplished something that has never been done in the modern era of Major League Baseball, so he gets the nod here. The Pittsburgh second baseman went 7-for-7 in the Pirates’ 22-0 rout of the Cubs, becoming the first and only modern-era big leaguer to record a hit in all seven of his at-bats in a nine-inning game. Stennett tripled once, doubled twice and drove in two runs at Wrigley Field. After his eighth-inning triple, he was removed for pinch-runner Willie Randolph. There have been other seven-hit games -- like Brandon Crawford’s in 2016 -- but none exactly like Stennett’s. -- Adam Berry

REDS: Scooter Gennett -- June 6, 2017 vs. Cardinals

Still a utility player who was starting in left field before eventually becoming the regular second baseman, Gennett did something no Reds player had ever done. He became the 17th Major League player to hit four home runs in one game during a 13-1 rout of the Cardinals at Great American Ball Park. Gennett, who was 5-for-5 in the game overall, tied a franchise record with 10 RBIs and set a new one-game franchise record with 17 total bases.

A blooped two-out RBI single in the first inning started the record night and was followed by a grand slam in the third inning, a two-run homer in the fourth and a solo shot in the sixth. With a lot of anticipation in the eighth inning, Gennett delivered a two-run homer to right field. That made him the first big leaguer to have five hits, four home runs and 10 RBIs in a game. Ironically, he had snapped an 0-for-19 skid the previous night. -- Mark Sheldon

NL WEST

D-BACKS: J.D. Martinez -- Sept. 4, 2017 at DodgersThe night did not start out well for Martinez, who fanned in his first at-bat at Dodger Stadium. It was the last out he would make in the game as he homered in his next four at-bats in the fourth, seventh, eighth and ninth innings. Martinez became the 18th player in Major League history to hit four home runs in a single game. The homers each came off different pitchers and he hit them to just about every spot in the ballpark -- left, center, right and left-center. According to ESPN Stats and Info., it was the first time in Major League history that a player had more home runs than the opposing team had hits as the Dodgers had three hits in the 13-0 Arizona win. -- Steve Gilbert

DODGERS: Shawn Green -- May 23, 2002 at BrewersThis not only was the greatest offensive game in Dodgers history, but probably in history, period. In a day game at Miller Park against the Brewers, Green launched four home runs with a double and a single. He went 6-for-6 with six runs scored, seven RBIs and a record 19 total bases. It was part of a seven-homer spree in three consecutive games and a league-record nine in a week. Green hit 17 home runs in a 23-game span, and he finished that year with 42.

"That day, and that week, I had a very calm sense of being in the zone," Green said. "As opposed to other times, when you're in the zone and you almost start pressing because you don't want to waste that great feeling you have. When that happens, in some ways you feel more pressure when you're in that zone. But for that week, I was just very relaxed. Everything slowed down. All the clichés." -- Ken Gurnick

GIANTS: Willie Mays -- April 30, 1961 at BrewersWhen Mays arrived at County Stadium on the day of his four-homer game in Milwaukee, he was far from 100 percent. The previous evening, Mays and fellow Hall of Famer Willie McCovey had shared a plate of ribs that caused the Say Hey Kid to come down with a stomach illness. After spending much of the night vomiting, Mays told Giants manager Alvin Dark that he didn't feel fit to play.

"I just didn't feel good when I got to the ballpark the next day after I ate those ribs," Mays told author John Shea in his new memoir, "24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid." "[Giants teammate Joey Amalfitano] asked me how I felt and to give him a number from 1 to 100. I said 75."

Amalfitano convinced Mays to try swinging an Adirondack bat, a lighter model than Mays typically used. During batting practice, Mays quickly hit five balls out of the park using Amalfitano's bat. Mays went back to Dark and said he wanted to play, setting the stage for the best game of his storied career. He hit four home runs, drove in eight runs and tallied 16 total bases as the Giants routed the Braves, 14-4. -- Maria Guardado

PADRES: Nate Colbert -- Aug. 1, 1972 at BravesThe Padres’ all-time home run leader, Colbert was a power-hitting force during the early years of the team’s existence. He authored one of the best single-day performances in baseball history in August 1972. Colbert started his day going 4-for-5 with a pair of homers and five RBIs in a day game against the Braves. Evidently, he was just getting warmed up. In Game 2 of the doubleheader, Colbert cranked three more homers and finished with a remarkable single-day line of 7-for-9 with seven runs, five homers, 13 RBIs and a walk. The Padres would win both games, and Colbert joined Stan Musial as the only players in baseball history with five homers in a doubleheader. -- AJ Cassavell

ROCKIES: Nolan Arenado -- June 18, 2017 vs. GiantsRockies history is full of cycles and big offensive performances. Coors Field, you know. Coors has hosted more cycles than any other park -- 19, 10 by opponents. So there are plenty of cycles to choose from, as there are high-production games -- six hits by Andres Galarraga (6-for-6 on July 3, 1995) and Charlie Blackmon (6-for-6 in his first home opener on April 4, 2014), reached base seven times in a game by Todd Helton (in a 13-inning game on April 8, 2003). The one we’ve picked was one of two cycles to finish with walk-off homers. The other was fashioned by Carlos González to beat the Cubs on July 31, 2010. The nod goes to Arenado’s Father’s Day cycle because his three-run homer to beat the Giants, 7-5, came with the Rockies behind in the bottom of the ninth. -- Thomas Harding